


Diamond in the Rough

by bloodykiss147



Category: Half Life VR But The AI Is Self Aware
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Getting Together, M/M, Mutual Pining, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Polyamory, gem au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-19
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:55:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24808876
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bloodykiss147/pseuds/bloodykiss147
Summary: A Yellow Fluorite, a Prasolite Quartz, a Pearl, and a Spinel crash land on Earth while escaping the rule of the Diamonds for a freer life. They need the human Gordon Freeman's help in getting their ship back and get to the rumored Beach City
Relationships: Benrey/Gordon Freeman, Benrey/Tommy Coolatta, Benrey/Tommy Coolatta/Gordon Freeman, Bubby/Dr. Coomer (Half-Life), Darnold/Forzen (Half-Life), Tommy Coolatta/Gordon Freeman
Comments: 13
Kudos: 142





	1. The Crash

**Author's Note:**

> No Beta here

Gordon took a drag from the last bit of his cigarette letting the smoke burn his lungs before releasing the breath. He leaned against the railing outside of the back of the Black Mesa Facility.

Beside him, his friend and co-worker Darnold already stubbed his out. "I'm heading in," he said.

Gordon waved him off while debating another cigarette instead of going in. He figures being lectured about it wasn't worth the time so he pushed himself from the railing. He doesn't get a step towards the door when a bright light filled the sky in a flash, following it was a bolt of light streaking across the sky above him. Gordon's eyes follow it and he sees the light land just over a hill not far from the facility.

Gordon looked behind him at the door back into the building and back to where the light landed. Normally he'd say fuck that and go back to work, he's bored enough to give in to his curiosity.

It doesn't take very long for Gordon to walk up the hill, he could see the smoke billowing from the crash site. He begins running towards it, as he got closer he can make out it's not a rock type object. Gordon froze just outside the crater it had made.

It was a space ship; the craft was round and looked to have stubby legs on it for landing but now most of was crushed into the earth. Gordon made his way over slowly, there were a few bits of desert bush on fire but wasn't dangerous enough to stop Gordon. The door was blasted open; it was free of fire so Gordon entered.

Inside a bunch of ruined consoles lined the walls. A single chair was in the middle, he can guess that's the captain's chair. He couldn't see the previous occupants of the ship anywhere. He looked at the consoles but couldn't make out what was being shown on them.

He felt his foot kick something when he moved away; he looked down and saw a large perfectly cut gemstone, it was about the size of his palm and a bright yellow. He picked it up and looked it over, it was gorgeous. He put it into his pocket and was about to look around when a bang startled him.

"Come out with your hands up!" A gruff voice yelled from outside the door.

Gordon does as he says until he got out and saw it was just the head of Black Mesa security Leon Forzen.

"What are you doing here, Freeman," he demanded.

"I came to see what happened," Gordon said.

Forzen frowned deeper and he almost growls, "Leave now, it's very dangerous here. We'll take care of it."

Gordon doesn't fight him; he left with the single gem he'd found, his hand clutched it in his pocket feeling the cool surface. He doesn't bother to return to work and heads straight home, he doesn't want anyone to see what he had.

Once he was safe in his home Gordon took a breath then took out the gem from his pocket. 

The yellow color of the gem is so vibrant Gordon can't stop looking at it; the cut is perfect, it's in a shape Gordon isn't sure of so he looks it up– it's called pear, apparently. He can't believe the size of it now that he can really look at it, he could never sell it but he thought about how rich it'd make him.

He dropped the thought, he placed the gem on his kitchen counter before going to take a shower; he didn't see until then that he was covered in dirt and sweat.

Gordon finished his shower, he's drying off his hair when he hears a loud crash from his living room. Gordon pulls the towel tight around his waist.  _ Shit! They know,  _ he thought to himself. He didn't have anything in the bathroom to protect himself, so he takes it slow; he peaks out and doesn't hear anything else.

He sighed and scoffed, he was being paranoid. Gordon stepped out of the bathroom fully and headed to his bedroom. Gordon nearly screamed when his bedroom door swung open first.

Gordon came eye to eye with a... person? They were human-shaped: tall, lanky, with a rectangular build but the whole body was unnatural shades of yellow. Their skin looked smooth to the touch with not a single imperfection, expect oddly enough wrinkles around the forehead and eyes. His eyes look them up and down before landing on the same exact gemstone from the crash, he looked over at the counter to see it was indeed missing.

"Ah–" Gordon doesn't know what to say, he looked back at the being in his doorway.

The being looked at him, slowly blinking but does not a word. Gordon was becoming increasingly uncomfortable standing still dripping and in a towel while just staring at this,  _ alien _ ?

He clears his throat and tries again, "um, hi?"

That seemed to get their attention. "Hi! I'm Yellow Fluorite," they said smiling.

"Y–Yellow Fluorite," Gordon said confused. "Like the stone?"

"Yeah, see," they said pointing to the gem in their chest.

Gordon nodded stupidly, he wasn't sure what else to say. "Can I get into my room to get dressed?" He asked.

They tilted their head in confusion but moved passed Gordon and into his living room. Gordon watched him fiddling with things, he didn't want to leave them alone though it was quickly outweighed by a shiver going through his body from the air on his bare chest. He goes to his room and changes as fast as he can.

Back in this living room, he heard the being moving around.

He stands at the door just absolutely not sure what to do; he couldn't believe it honestly. He opened the door with a sigh. Everything is quite so far; he looked overseeing the rock being found his laptop.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

"What is this?" They ask back.

"A laptop, you use it to do a bunch of stuff."

"Can I use it to find my friends?"

"You're friends?" Gordon thought for a moment. "There were other stones?"

"Yes! Please we have to get them," he said getting into Gordon's personal space.

"Listen– Yellow Fluorite?" They nodded. "I don't know where they could be, I didn't even see them."

"So you won't help?" They said, their voice wavered and Gordon panics not wanting them to cry.

"No, no. I just mean I can't do it right now. Maybe I can learn something at work tomorrow," Gordon was panicking more, he wasn't even thinking he just didn't want them to cry.

They broke into a smile and hugged Gordon tightly, he turned red and awkwardly patted their back. They let Gordon go with a smile.

"So," Gordon wasn't sure what to do now. "Do you want anything to eat or drink?"

"Oh no that's alright, I don't have to eat. My body is made from light," they said.

"Okay, so…" Gordon wasn't sure what to do now and he stood awkwardly.

"Can I use the laptop?" They ask. "I want to do some research on Earth."

Gordon decided why not and set them up with a basic rundown on how the internet works, as well as a few warnings about what can be found accidentally. Once they were set Gordon left them be. He had a sandwich before turning in.

"I'm going to sleep. Do you need to– like 

to sleep?"

"No, don't need that either."

"Okay, well feel free to use the laptop all night then, YF."

"YF?" They looked at Gordon with that confused tilt of the head.

"Yellow Fluorite is a bit of a mouthful, so like YF for short…" Gordon felt awkward again, he clenched and relaxed his grip to calm himself.

"Oh," is all they said.

Gordon nodded and just left them to their research. He didn't realize how tired he really was until his head hit the pillow and he was out like a light.

It was early when Gordon felt something watching him. He cracked an eye open and was greeted with a huge smile from the being he met last night.  _ Oh, God, he had hoped it was a dream. _

"Hey, what time is it?" Gordon asked but didn't wait for a response he was honestly sure YF wouldn't even know how to answer.

His alarm says 6 am, an hour before he usually gets up but he couldn't really go back to sleep even if he wanted to.

"Ah, good morning," he said to YF finally.

"Good morning Mr. Freeman," they said still smiling.

His name coming from them nearly gave him a heart attack, "how do you know my name?"

"It's on your laptop," they said as if it was the obvious answer.

"Okay," Gordon relaxed slightly but was still very much put off;  _ they must have gotten into my emails. _

Gordon gets out of bed, he is still a little groggy and tried to start his typical morning routine but it wasn't much of an option with YF choosing to follow him around the house. "Listen I need to get ready for work, and you can't be in here."

"Why?"

"B–because," Gordon couldn't help his stutter and fumbling to find the right words through his embarrassment. "It's just rude, on Earth! So please a moment," he said.

That seemed to have worked and they exited the room but didn't go far. Almost forcing Gordon to close the door on their face.

"Mr. Freeman, I think I found a solution to my name," they said through the closed door.

"How about you tell me in a minute?" He called back.

Once dressed Gordon opened the door to find YF hadn't moved. "What did you find?"

"A website full of human names! There are so many," he said with an air of wonderment. "I was able to do so much more research on humans, like gender!"

"You don't have genders?"

"Nope, we are just Gems, we can choose whatever form we want. Though we have adopted your pronouns for convenience, a lot of past Gems were given the female pronouns, so it stuck."

"Oh, I've been using the neutral they and them pronouns in my mind."

"That's fine, it doesn't matter it's your language for it. I like the sound of the ones used for your males."

"He and him," Gordon said.

"Yeah!"

Gordon waited for a continuation but that was apparently it. "What does that have to do with names though," Gordon said to get more information going.

"Oh yeah, I found the names first then went to research gender after that, but I found an Earth name that I like the sound of."

"Okay, what is it?"

"Tommy Coolatta," he said.

"You chose the last name Coolatta?" Gordon couldn't help but laugh.

"It was on the website," he said.

"It was probably an ad," he said still laughing. "But it's fine, it's a good choice, Tommy."

Tommy waited for Gordon to stop laughing with a smile but once he had Tommy had a more serious look on his face. "When can we find my friends?"

"I'm going to work soon, I can try and find out where they could have brought them."

That seemed to satisfy Tommy though his smile was short-lived. Gordon panics and tries to reassure him, "Hey, we'll find them."

"We need to find them before they reform, I don't know what other humans will do, Mr. Freeman," he said.

"Don't worry we will," Gordon knew it was basically an unkeepable promise but he hoped it wouldn't have to be.

Gordon finished getting ready and had a basic breakfast of toast, "I'll be back later tonight," he said.

"Wait! I can come with you," Tommy said.

Gordon was about to tell him no when he's stopped by Tommy transforming himself into a tiny version of himself.

"Huh, okay. That might actually be really helpful," Gordon said, he bends down and picks Tommy up.

He goes to look for an old bag and packed it with random things he could claim he needed for work, he lets Tommy drop down into the bag.

"Okay let's go get your friends," Gordon said into the bag.


	2. Heist

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Un'beta

Gordon walked into work stiff as a board, he didn’t make eye contact with anyone and hurried to his work station. He wasn't sure where to start looking for the others. The only real option that comes to mind is Darnold, he's a good friend and always down to help Gordon. Upon entering the lab he saw Darnold wasn't in yet. Gordon put the bag on his desk and sat waiting for Darnold. Tommy peaked out from the opening of the bag.

Gordon didn't need more than a finger to stop Tommy, "stay out of sight for now," he said.

Darnold arrives an hour later, "morning, Gordon," he curtly.

Gordon looked at Darnold with a raised eyebrow, "what's up, man?" Gordon asked.

"Where the hell did you run off to last night?" He asked, arms crossed.

Gordon doesn’t bother beating around the bush, "so this is going to sound unbelievable but just listen," he paused waiting for Darnold's reaction; Darnold motioned for him to continue. "After you left there was a light in the sky, it was a spaceship crashing! Before you say anything just look!" He said waving his hands around.

Gordon slows down when he goes for the bag to not harm Tommy inside. "Come on out now," he said putting his hand inside for Tommy to hop up into.

Darnold watched Gordon with amused interest. Gordon holds out his hand to show Darnold the tiny Tommy.

"He's one of the aliens!" Gordon said in a harsh whisper.

Darnold's eyes grew wide, he rushed over to Gordon and stared closely at Tommy.

"Ah, hi, my name's Tommy," Tommy said.

"Holy shit," Darnold gasped; he backed up slightly. "Um, hi Tommy," he said.

"We need to find his friends," Gordon said.

"How many more are there?" Darnold asked.

"Ah, I've never asked…" Gordon trailed off at Darnold's glare.

"Three! My friends are a Pearl, Prasiolite Quartz, and a Spinel," Tommy said.

"Like the– gemstones?"

"Yeah they're like alien rocks, it's a little weird," Gordon said, he put Tommy down onto the desk.

"Who'd have them?"

Gordon groaned sinking into his chair, "Forzen," he said.

It was like he said a magic word, "should have opened with that!" Darnold looked off dreamily.

"Oh God, don't tell me you have a thing for that guy," Gordon laughed.

"Have you seen his arms," Darnold said it like Gordon must be blind to not appreciate them.

"Yeah, but like imagine having to have a conversation with him," he said.

Darnold laughed and was about to say something but they both hear the door woosh open and freeze. Gordon can see Tommy scurrying back into the bag from his peripheral vision.

"Freeman," Forzen shouted.

"What?" Gordon tried to keep his usual dismissive attitude towards him.

"I have some questions about the–" he stopped seeming to notice Darnold finally. "I have questions for you, alone," he said.

"I can take a hint," Darnold put his hand up in surrender.

When Darnold went past Forzen he cleared his throat. "Thank you, Dr. Darnold," he said nervously.

Once alone with Gordon, he went back to his serious face, which just looked like he ate a bad lemon to Gordon.

"Where did you go last night?" He asked.

"Home, I was a little overwhelmed."

"What did you see in the craft?"

"What? You finally a government man now," Gordon said.

"Just answer the question," Forzen said, his patience running thin.

"Some computers? I wasn't there very long. Why?"

"It's none of your business," he barked. "Just there could be... contaminates we have to look out for."

"I didn't see anything," he said.

Forzen’s face squinted as he thought about the truthfulness of his words.

Gordon takes the moment to try and worm information from him, "so where are they taking the ship?"

"We have people examining it. You don’t need to know anything else," is all he said. It was enough to tell Gordon they're probably still in the building at least. "Do not speak of this to anyone," he said and left abruptly.

Gordon let out a huge sigh of relief once the doors closed behind him. Tommy popped out of the bag and climbed to Gordon's shoulder.

"They have to be in the building still," he said to Tommy.

"But where?"

"I'm not sure," Gordon had to admit. He couldn't think of any department that would be tasked with handling an alien craft or things inside of one for that matter.

Darnold returned in a great mood; he sat at his desk and turned the chair to face Gordon. "He's a real sweetheart," Darnold said.

"Hardly," Gordon snorted.

"So you get anything from him?"

"Vaguely, he made it sound like they're in the building still." Gordon stopped to think for a minute. "Where would they bring alien gems?"

"Pretty sure level 5 studies minerals, would that count," Darnold said.

"Can't hurt to try," Gordon said.

He'd have to try closer to the lunch period to see if they have anything. Gordon got to work on what needed to be done for the day while he waited. Tommy wandered the lab, he used the clutter to get to Darnold's desk as quick hiding in case someone came in. Gordon can hear Darnold talk to Tommy in whispers, probably asking each other a million questions.

When lunch came around Gordon took Tommy straight down to the level 5 labs. Gordon nearly got lost in the labyrinth of Black Mesa's unfamiliar lower floors. Everything was so grey and cold metal it was hard to pinpoint where you may be in the facility.

Luckily none of the other scientists bothered him, they were either more interested in their lunch or their own research to mind a new face. There was a guard at the elevator but he seemed half-asleep.

Gordon looked into different labs but didn't see any sign of the other Gems. He was about to give up when he heard a commotion from the next lab. He tried to casually walk over to the door and look inside. Two older scientists were arguing loudly with another security guard, behind them in a cage was the three Gems on a table.

They went silent, Gordon hid around the corner as they exited the lab and went back the way Gordon had come talking about lunch.

He slipped into the lab before the door slid shut. Gordon slinked around the wall and pushed the security camera to face up to the ceiling. Tommy jumped out the bag once it was safe, he grew back to his normal size before his feet hit the floor.

"We have to get them out," he said.

Gordon looked around for a key to the cage but can't find one anywhere. "Shit–" Gordon growled. "Can you make them smaller?"

"Not if they don't reform," he said.

Instead of thinking clearly Gordon said fuck it and takes scissors to the thin metal cage. It wasn't working; he was getting desperate to get out of there, he wanted to leave before he was caught but he also knew that if he left now he'd never get them back for Tommy.

"Fuck, I can't cut it." 

"I can help!" Tommy smiled.

He moved back from the cage; Tommy's gem started to glow, he put a hand under it and a glowing ball floated out from the gem. In a flash, the ball turned into– a Beyblade.

"Is that a Beyblade?" Gordon was thrown off.

"It's my weapon, I saw it on the laptop," Tommy said as if it made any sense to Gordon.

He let the Beyblade rip, it was nothing like the children's toy. The speed at which it went turned it into something like a saw blade. It ripped through the cage before it vanished.

"Well that works, let's grab them," Gordon said;  _ not very subtle though _ .

Tommy picks up each of his friends gently, his gem glowed again but instead of taking something out, he put each gem in a bubble then into his gem.  _ That's pretty useful _ , Gordon thought.

He made it out with no issues, the floor was cleared of other employees so Gordon walked away only half running. He slowed down before he nearly ran into the security guard at the elevator. The guard was still mostly out of it and didn't pay any attention to Gordon entering the elevator back to his own floor.

He got back to his station just in time for lunch to end. Gordon had to praise himself when he didn't freeze up upon entering the lab. Forzen was there, he leaned against Darnold's desk and they were chatting close.

The talking and obvious flirting stopped when the sound of the door shutting interrupted them.

"Where were you?" Forzen said, he stood at attention.

"Out for lunch–" Gordon hoped his pause was taken as snark and not a confused lie.

Forzen huffed, he turned to give a curt goodbye to Darnold before he left the room.

They let the door shut then even waited several minutes longer before either said anything. "Did you find them?" Darnold asked.

"Yeah, Tommy has them," Gordon sighed. "We weren't very stealthy about it, so not out of the shit yet."

They went back to work without interruption until it was nearly time to leave. Gordon gathered everything up and left slightly earlier than usual. He was nearly at the door when he was stopped by Forzen shouting at him.

Frozen grabbed Gordon by the collar of his shirt, "where are they!" He yelled.

"What are you talking about?"

"Don't play dumb, there was a break-in on one of the lower levels." He said with a threatening growl.

"Listen, I don't–"

"Forzen!"

Frozen froze dropping Gordon from his grasp; they both looked behind him to see Darnold coming up the hall.

"I was hoping to catch you before you leave," he said.

Forzen cleared his throat, "what can I do for you?"

Gordon took the out, and made a quick and silent exit from the building.

He would probably owe Darnold something for the help, though he'll probably get his own reward out of it.

_ Time to get the Gems hom _ e, he thought.


	3. Meeting the Gems

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gordon is introduced to the rest of the Gems

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Un'beta

Gordon couldn't get home fast enough, he's sure he'll be found out but the Gems are free at least.  _ What's the jail time for stealing aliens _ ? Tommy clung to the edge of the bag, wide-eyed he watched the other people on the bus. Gordon chuckled softly, other people be damned; Tommy looked so  _ cute, _ Gordon realized what he was thinking and turned to look anywhere but at the tiny Tommy in his bag.

Gordon could finally breathe when he got to his apartment door. He stopped by his mailbox and ran into his neighbor Chell. They greeted each other but Gordon didn't want to stick around too long, luckily Chell left right after.

When the door to his apartment clicked closed Gordon sighed until his lungs felt empty. He almost threw the bag without thinking but caught himself mid toss.

"Shit, sorry Tommy," he said.

Gordon actually goes to his couch and put the bag down gently. Tommy moved the flap out of his way and bounced out onto the couch. He grew into a sitting position with his hands on his lap and a smile on his face.

"We got them, Mr. Freeman!"

Gordon couldn't help being infected by his smile, "hell yeah, we did," he said; Gordon went for a high five but was just given an odd look in return. He cleared his throat, "so what now?" He asked.

Tommy's gem lights up and he released all the bubbled Gems. "Once they're unbubbled they can reform."

"Why the bubble?"

"Keeps them from reforming, I didn't want them to change before we got out," he said.

"Smart," Gordon nodded.

"I'm a Yellow Fluorite, Mr. Freeman."

Gordon stared at him confused, he was waiting for a further explanation but Tommy again let it at that.

Tommy put each Gem out on the table, "this one is Pearl," he pointed to a large off white oval-shaped smooth gem. Next to the Pearl was a green rectangular-cut gem, "that's Prasiolite," he said. 

The last was a deep blue circular-cut stone but it was different, the gem looked to have had a chunk broken off, in its' place is jagged shards of red-colored stone. Tommy picked that one up and looked sadly at it. "This is Spinel," he said.

"Mind if I ask about–" Gordon wasn't sure how to finish the thought.

Tommy's expression went dark, it threw Gordon off slightly. "My higher up… didn't like me spending so much time with her overdoing my work. So she–" he started to tear up, in a bit of a panic Gordon puts a hand on Tommy's so they were basically both cradling Spinel. "She shattered Spinel, then fused her with shards from a random Ruby."

"I'm sorry, is there anything that can be done?"

"Our Diamond– she could but wouldn't, she ordered the experiment in the first place so why would she," Tommy said.

Gordon doesn't say anything but kept his hand on Tommy's.

"She changed, but she'll always be my Spinel," he said.

"Maybe you'll find the way to fix her here on Earth," Gordon said.

That made Tommy light up, "I hope so, Mr. Freeman."

"You know I never asked about why you are all here on Earth."

"We–" before Tommy could finish the Prasiolite Gem started to glow and raised off the table. "Oh, she's reforming!"

The light overtook the Gem and then it began to grow and morph. The whole thing grew until it formed a figure then in a blinding flash it was in a solid form. This Gem was a lot shorter than Tommy and made of shades of green. Prasiolite took the form of a round elder human man, the form looked familiar to Gordon. She had everything: wrinkles, balding, and a thick mustache. She also wore a lab coat that looked a lot like what most of the Black Mesa scientists wore.

"Prasiolite!" Tommy shouted and hugged his confused friend.

"Hello, Yellow Fluorite!" She hugs back. "Where are we?"

"At Mr. Freeman's house, he's a human," Tommy pointed over to Gordon still sitting on the couch. "He helped me save you," Tommy finished.

Gordon waved at the newly formed Gem, "hey," he said. 

"Hello, Mr. Freeman."

"Ah, you both can just call me Gordon."

"Hello, Gordon," Prasiolite said, then looked back at Tommy. "What about the others?"

"They haven't reformed yet," Tommy said.

"Well I'm not surprised those other humans kept poking and prodding us," she said.

"Wait the scientists at the lab saw you!" Gordon began freaking out. It didn't really change what he did but it was just another thing on his shoulder.

"Oh yes! They wanted to know everything about us. Pearl was not happy at all about it," Prasiolite said then something it seemed to hit her. Almost frantically she asked, "where is Pearl?"

"On the table," Gordon pointed to the Gem on the table.

Prasiolite picked Pearl off the table, she gives the gem a soft kiss. "Time to reform," she said.

As if on demand the Gem started to glow as Prasiolite's had. This time the glow formed into a much thinner and taller figure. Gordon shielded his eyes this time and got out of being blinded again.

Pearl was about Gordon's height but lanky where Gordon had what others would call a "dad bod". Pearl was slightly different then Tommy and Prasiolite, the color of her hair and skin were almost pure white but her outfit was a purplish-blue off-white color. She also seemed to have taken on the form of one of the scientists: she was also balding like Prasiolite, had deep wrinkles, and glasses. Her lab coat had a flare to it, instead of being a standard lab coat like Prasiolite she wore one that went down to her ankles, it was joined together in the middle before opening again.

She was looking at Gordon when she formed and gave him a glare. "Who the fuck are you?" She said.

Gordon was not expecting that at all, he just looked at the Gem with confused wide eyes. "Gordon," he said, but Pearl had already stopped paying attention to him.

Prasiolite scooped Pearl up bridal style and kissed her nose while laughing. "We're free Pearl!"

"Really?" She looked at Gordon skeptically.

"I helped Tommy get you all out," Gordon defended himself.

"T–Tommy? Who's Tommy," she said.

"Oh, that's me! I chose an Earth name, and I'm trying new pronouns, I want you to use he and him."

"Oh that's wonderful, Tommy," Prasiolite gave Tommy and a huge smile. "I would like an Earth name too!"

"Hey, I want one too!" Pearl joined in.

Gordon sighed and got his laptop out for them. "Tommy can show you have to use this," he said. Pearl took the laptop from him, violently.

"What about our dear Spinel?" Prasiolite said looking back at the table for the remaining Gem.

"I'm not surprised she's last," Tommy said.

Pearl and Prasiolite looked to each other then at Tommy, "it might be longer than usual," Prasiolite paused to take Pearl's hand. "They wanted us to show them how we take new forms–" Prasiolite started but stopped again to look sadly at Spinel.

"They poofed her!" Pearl said angrily.

"We said yes but told them to leave her alone, they didn't care and poofed her."

Gordon looked shocked, Tommy looked absolutely pissed. He was practically shaking, Prasiolite comforted him before Gordon could get up. He didn't have to know these Gems well to tell what happened was really bad.

He wasn't sure what to do so Gordon excuses himself. "It's getting late, I'm going to have dinner. You can all look around but please don't break anything," Gordon said.

Tommy and Prasiolite acknowledged him but Pearl went to fiddle with the laptop.

He left them to it and went to his kitchenette area to make a quick dinner. He didn't have much so he just made a sandwich with the bit of lunch meat he had left.

He ate it while watching the three Gems sit around the laptop.

"So why are you here on Earth anyway?" He asked.

"I don't think you need to know that," Pearl said.

"It would help me help you if I knew," Gordon pointed out.

Pearl huffed and turned her glared at Prasiolite.

"We're here because rebel Gems have been spotted here on Earth, and we hope to join them. Be free from Homeworld."

"What is Homeworld?"

Pearl scoffed, "the planet we're from, human. Keep up," she said.

"What's wrong with Homeworld?"

"They're very… strict about everything," Tommy said.

"Imperfection is frowned upon," Prasiolite said, she took Pearl's hand lovingly.

"I see," Gordon said. He doesn't need more.

The conversation left the air in the room tense. Tommy got their attention, "here is the thing I found that showed me names."

"Ooo," Prasiolite said, her attention on the laptop now.

They chatted to themselves for a while, Gordon finished his sandwich and went for a shower.

The first thing Gordon heard as he exited the bathroom is Pearl yell out. "I will not be named Bubby!"

"But it's cute!" Prasiolite said.

Gordon laughed until the argument is cut off when he shut the door to his bedroom to change. When Gordon came out the Gems apparently finished their argument.

"Gordon! We have chosen names!" Prasiolite said.

"Oh cool, what did you choose."

"I am now Dr. Harold Coomer!" Prasiolite said, "and my, all those pronouns you have! They and them are my favorite."

"Ah, okay," Gordon said. "What about you Pearl?"

"B-Bubby," Pearl blushed. "I'll use the name pronouns as Tommy."

"Oh you'll use the name I gave you," Coomer said, their eyes teared up and they grabbed Bubby's hands.

"It's not so bad," Bubby said.

"Well, I'm glad you are all enjoying yourselves."

The Gems go back to the laptop which left Gordon to just stand there awkwardly. He looked down at the table beside the laptop where Spinel's gem is sitting.

"I'm going to bed, I have work tomorrow," Gordon said, he was waved off by Tommy and Coomer.

It was late when something woke Gordon up. The room was pitch black and he can't see anything but he could  _ feel  _ something in there with him. He assumed it was Pear– Bubby.

He clicked his table light on, "Wha–" it wasn't Bubby.

At the foot of his bed was a short square Gem, Gordon's eye goes right to the Gem on her neck then to the shards of red jutting from her left eye.

"You must be Spinel," Gordon said, trying to calm his breathing.

Spinel looked at him, silently blinking. Gordon was going to try again when Spinel opened her mouth, she started making a loud tune and glowing orbs came from her mouth. They were a deep blue like her stone. Gordon had to cover his ears when she got shriller, he was about to jump out of bed to stop her when everything went silent and she left the room.

_ Okay,  _ Gordon couldn't even fathom what that was about. It was too late and he was too tired to bother with it that night, he flopped back into his bed and was out like a light again.


	4. Dude! Where's their Ship

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took nearly a month, I was super busy then my fixation sort jumped trains so I'm trying to get back into writing HLVRAI.

The sun woke Gordon the second time, he hadn't set his clock but luckily it wasn't much later than he'd usually woke up. Gordon rubbed his eyes while getting up from the bed, he was wishing he could just go back to bed.

In the living room, the group of Gems sat around a pile of what looked like Gordon's laptop. "What the hell!" He shouted.

Only Tommy jumped at Gordon's outburst the rest only looked at him confused.

"It's primitive, I'm making it better," Bubby said.

Gordon wanted to rip out his hair, "just put it back together."

"Oh! Gordon look, Spinel reformed!" Coomer said.

"I know, she came into my room last night. How the hell did you not hear her," Gordon said, he looked at Spinel. "So, she pick out a new name and stuff?"

"B–Benrey," Spinel or rather Benrey said.

"Okay, we'd you find that?"

"Phone," Benrey said pointing to Gordon's phone left on the coffee table.

"I think you mean Barney, he's a friend of mine from work before he moved. But Benrey is good," he said. "What about pronouns?"

"I– we don't care," Benrey said.

"Okay, cool. So I have to get ready for work, fix my computer."

Gordon gets showered and dressed with just enough time for a fried egg for breakfast, it's more than he usually eats anyways. The Gems are back to what they were doing; Gordon's eyes landed on Benrey, in the light of the day Gordon could really take them in.

Benrey was the shortest of the Gems, their body is square but Gordon couldn't tell if he was soft or more solid. Gordon can see that they're wearing a guard uniform but unlike Coomer or Bubby, nothing else was similar to any guard he's seen at Black Mesa. He had long hair poking out from under the helmet their wearing, some of the Ruby shards jutted out of the helmet in a few spots sperate from the main cluster. He remembered Benrey's Gem is on their throat, it's round cut and the deepest blue Gordon's ever seen. Gordon would only admit to himself he'd say Benrey is kind of cute, but their blank stare ruined it.

Apparently Gordon was staring too long because Benrey looked over at him. Their eyes met for only a second before Gordon panicked and went back to getting ready. He almost missed Tommy's looked between them and the little smile.

Gordon was almost out the door when he said, "I'm off to work now."

Behind him he can hear the Gems get up, he turned around, "no, it's too dangerous," he said.

"But we need to get to finding our ship!" Tommy said.

"I'll try and ask around but things are still pretty hot," Gordon said

"I don't care about the temperature, we need our ship before you humans break something," Bubby was almost shouting.

"I'll do what I can but having a ship won't matter if you're all captured again."

"I'll follow you," Benrey said.

"W–what? No!" Gordon groaned.

Benrey smacked their lips, "I have to come with you, we're sorry," they said.

"No, just stay here!" Gordon 

"You're not getting rid of me that easily, your going to steal from the ship and are tricking us by telling us to stay," Benrey said, their voice seemed to be split between panicking and their regular almost monotoned voice.

"I'm not tricking you," Gordon sighed.

"It's okay Benrey, we can trust Mr. Freeman," Tommy said.

"Gordon, Tommy call me Gordon."

"Sorry," he said.

"It's fine. I'm going, stay here and. Do. Not. Leave."

"Okay, Gordon," Coomer said.

"Fine," Bubby crossed his arms.

Benrey doesn't say anything else, which is fine by Gordon. He leaves the apartment and locked it. He jumped out of his skin when he turned to see Chell staring at him from her apartment door.

_ "Having company?"  _ She signed.

"Ah–yeah," he said awkwardly.

She raised an eyebrow.

"Anyway I got to go to work," Gordon said and begun speeding off. "Have a nice day," he added as he started down the stairs.

Gordon was practically shaking as he entered the building, the security guard at the front desk was chatting to another guard. "Howdy," he said, he waved at them but wanted to slap himself in the face for how awkward he was being.

They waved back, neither of them seemed to be acting differently than usual. Gordon wondered if they're keeping the break-in hush hush. That made him feel slightly better but he knew he had to deal with Forzen at some point. Gordon suddenly felt like an idiot coming to work, he could have fled from his house when they came but he had no way out of Black Mesa; Gordon sprinted to his lab before he fainted.

Darnold was already in when Gordon burst into the lab. He sat at his desk with his head down to catch his breath.

"You okay?" Darnold asked.

"I'm an idiot," Gordon whined.

"You'll be fine, just calm down," Darnold said, Gordon knew he was holding down a sigh.

Gordon took a breath and went straight to work. It actually helped a lot keeping his mind off things. He made it to lunch before running into Forzen. They nearly collided in the hall.

Forzen glared, "I don't know how you did it, but watch your back."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Gordon lied.

"Whatever play dumb," he leaned in, "you won't be able to do it again, I've made sure of it."

Gordon wasn't really sure what that meant but he tried to not flinch, "how about a bit of personal space," Gordon said.

He gave Gordon another warning about playing dumb but moved out Gordon's space, he leaves without another word.

In the lunchroom there were only two other scientists, they were the ones from the other day. Gordon noticed they looked just like Coomer and Bubby, but he saw that Bubby was much sharper and Coomer shorter and more round. He'll have to ask how much they modified their look.

Gordon was brought back from his thoughts by them arguing about losing something, he's sure they're talking about the break-in. He hid around the corner to the bathrooms and tried to listen in.

"Instant clearance lost!" The tall one said.

"They act like security was our job," the other one sighed, then said just barely audible to Gordon. "They moved the rest, an opportunity of a lifetime lost."

"To the fuckin Lambda Labs," the other one sighed, well that explained Bubby's vocabulary.

They leave once their meals are done, and Gordon comes from his hiding spot.  _ Lambda Labs?  _ That sounded vaguely familiar but he wasn't sure.

Back at his station, he asked Darnold right away about the labs.

"Why do you think I know everything?"

"Because you usually do," Gordon said like it was obvious.

"That's true, but I actually don't know. I can ask around."

"That would be less suspicious," Gordon said.

Gordon and Darnold got back to work, they joked once in a while and it felt like everything was back to normal. He got through the rest of the day without his nerves getting to him. He didn't even have to deal with Forzen again, though he did notice him watching from afar as he left for the day with Darnold.

"I don't understand what you see in him," Gordon mumbled to Darnold.

"He can be a really cute dork," Darnold laughed.

Gordon got back to his apartment ready to relax slightly, but that was shattered when he accidentally opens the door without thinking.  _ It wasn't locked anymore. _

Inside his apartment was his neighbor Chell surrounded by the Gems and several books on,  _ sign language? _

"Ah–" he wasn't sure what to say.

"Welcome home, Gordon," Tommy said.

"Hello, Gordon. Look another human!" Coomer said.

"Yeah that's my neighbor, um," he wasn't sure how to continue. "Not to be rude but how'd you get in?"

_ "They let me in,"  _ she said.

Gordon glared at the Gems, "you should have not opened the door."

"We couldn't sit here all day!" Bubby yelled.

"I told you I'm working on it," Gordon sighed. "I did find out your ship was moved to another lab."

"Perfect! Let's go there," Coomer said.

"I don't know where it is but I'm working on it, just have to wait," Gordon said.

Bubby huffed, "fine."

"So, what are you all doing anyway?"

"Learning!" Tommy said, he held up the book from his lap.

It was a basic book on sign language, "you're learning sign language?"

"Well yes. See when we went to leave and ran into your, neighbor? She wouldn't let us leave but we couldn't understand her," Coomer said.

"So she gave us these books and we've been studying all day!" Tommy gets more excited.

Gordon eyed Chell, "I guess I should thank you for keeping them out of trouble," Gordon rubbed his neck nervously. "But how can–"

_ "You trust me?"  _ She signed.

"Yeah, sorry I couldn't think of a way not to sound shitty about it."

_ "Try working for Aperture Labs sometime," _ she smiled very knowingly.

"I won't ask," Gordon said, she nodded back. "I'm starving want to stay over for dinner?"

She shook her head,  _ "Got to get home maybe next time,"  _ then to the Gems, _ "keep the books for now." _

She left with a wave, once the door was closed Gordon faced the Gems. He didn't hide his boiling anger.

"What the hell! You are so fucking lucky she didn't turn you in," Gordon didn't yell but he wanted to.

"We told you, we can't wait!" Bubby complained again.

"Freedom isn't going anywhere," Gordon said.

It seemed to have an effect on Bubby, or at least his shoulders relaxed slightly.

"What's the plan, Mr. Freeman? How will we find the other lab?"

"I have a friend on it, Tommy. For now, though you have to stay here."

"Liar, you just want to keep us here," Benrey said, Gordon, noticing it's the only thing they've said.

"Yes because I want to harbor aliens in my apartment, who take apart my electronics."

"Oh, yes. We've fixed it by the way," Coomer said, they help up the laptop for Gordon to see.

"It's better now!" Bubby said.

"Thanks," Gordon said half sincere.

"You're welcome," Bubby stood proud with his chest out.

"I'm ordering dinner, I know you don't have to but would you like to try human food?"

The group looked at eat other and nodded so Gordon ordered two large pizzas and sides to go with it.

While they ate the Gems sat around talking about the rest of their plan for freedom. Other than Spinel the rest was really into the food.

"What will you do once you make it to the rebel Gems?" Gordon asked.

"Join them, and be free, Gordon!"

"But like what will be the first thing you'll do?"

"I want to fight for them, put myself to good use as the Quart I am!" Coomer looked over to Bubby, "and of course fuse with Bubby!"

Bubby turned a strange color that Gordon would guess is technically a blush. "Not in front of a human!" He said.

"What's fusion?" Gordon asked.

"Two or more Gems can combine their forms and powers into a single being," Coomer said dreamily.

"It's very serious," Bubby said.

"And you haven't done it yet?"

"It's an offense that could have gotten us shattered!" Gordon didn't like the sound of that, so he didn't ask more.

"What about you, Tommy?"

"I want a dog," he smiled, "I would name them Sunkist," Tommy continued.

Gordon snickered, "Sunkist?"

"Yeah," Tommy said.

"What about you, Benrey?"

Benrey just looked at Gordon and shrugged, "I want PSN," he said.

"Like for the PlayStation?" Gordon was thrown for a loop.

Benrey shrugged, "yeah," they said.

Gordon was sure they saw an ad on the computer but he doesn't want to dissuade Benrey's dream.

"Well actually I have a PlayStation 4, let me get it," Gordon gets up and gathered his PlayStation to hook it up in the living room.

After he was finished, "I'm sure you can figure it out but games go here, the controls are usually the same for everything but some games are different they usually explain it to you," Gordon said.

Benrey stared at Gordon silently, Gordon could see a gleam in his eye. It felt good to be looked at with such aw.

Before he goes to bed, "I have work again tomorrow, but then it's the weekend so I'll have a couple of days off."

They went back to the PlayStation after telling Gordon goodnight; Gordon looked at them all once more, he smiled watching Tommy and Benrey figure out how everything worked while Coomer and Bubby sat close together on the couch hand and hand.

**Author's Note:**

> https://vetraandgarrusaremyboos.tumblr.com/


End file.
